In the Silent Glaciers, there was a prison almost forgotten. It was used in rare cases but hasn't been active for many years, until recently when a special captive was brought to the run down facility.

In the midst of the dark room, Luna was coming out of her unconscious state as she woke up on a cold, worn, and torn thin mattress. She felt diminished, hungry, and sore in her back. Luna reached for the slim pocket in her combat shorts that she stored her iLac in, but immediately noticed it wasn't there. She sat herself up, the thin blanket with holes and burns all over fell off down and Luna heard jingling of metal. It had taken a few moments of blinking and rubbing her closed eyes before Luna's sense of sight caught up with her. Opening her eyes, she noticed she was in a cold metal room, bare except for the mattress and blanket in the corner. The light of the room came from slits in the wall serving as windows, causing rays of light to come through. Against the furthest corner from the mattress was the thick iron door, with a keyhole for the lock on either side. Luna predicted this was some form of special cell for isolating prisoners with certain attributes.

Luna tried to stand up but she noticed around her left ankle was a thick steel cuff and chain connecting her to the wall. While the room felt cold, Luna had a cold feeling around her neck as she noticed there was a collar, she tried to use Integrated mind but her magic seemed null for the meantime, which gave away the metal. Fae Silver, a rare metal only found naturally off world, or in Seven. It was an expensive metal that while glamorous for decor. had a unique property of shutting down a fairy's magic. Luna grew concerned, it was clear whoever wanted her here did their homework. As much as Luna wanted to panic, she realized she had little time to do so. She wanted to escape, so she had to get all her facts straight. First, she tried to recall how she got here.

Her last memory started in the midst of a day, somewhere around noon hour. Normally she'd be around the guild hall since she was not on a job, but that day she was out at the school she had enrolled her sister in. She like other parents and guardians were around to help out the PTA with preparing a fundraiser. Luna was having fun baking and drinking wine, but she received an emergency alert from her guild, a situation arouse requiring the Guild Master's attention. On her way to the Guild hall, things start to get fuzzier, she was at the base of the mountain, then she recalled a striking blow to the back and then any details were foggy. "Alright...Now that I gathered as much of the past, it's time I see what I can gather about the present..."

Luna stood up as she walked across the room, barely making it halfway across, testing the limits of the chain. She walked over to the wall with the windows. The windows were at most seven feet into the air. Bending her legs, she prepared as much force as she could before she jumped up into towards the roof, grabbing the side of two slits, pulling herself up. She felt the coldness, her fingers started to recall where she is before her eyes confirmed it. She knew she was in the Silent Glaciers, before she dropped down, she looked for the sun's position and realized the sun was in the noon position. She dropped back down and covered her hands in the blanket, rubbing them as she tried to warm them up. The information was unsettling, but she decided to ration out with what she knew thus far.

"Alright, so I was abducted at home closer to one, now it is shortly after noon and I'm in the Silent Glaciers. I can safely deduce I've been unconscious for at least 2 and a half days, maybe this is four. Still, my safest bet is that someone witnessed my capture, or the guild reported me missing and there were signs after abduction. Even then I can't stay for long. If someone captured me and was willing to pay for Fae Silver, they must have something against me. Fairy hunter? No, he couldn't. Anyways, trapped in a jail cell, magic sealed, and my gear stripped of me. I'm looking at this wrong, I am too complex, let me dissect myself..."

Luna then tried to think of herself in several lights, on the one hand she was a rare breed of fairy, and she produced a potent healing powder in fairy form, and her wings very effective. Various hunters would love to capture her. On the other she was a wizard and guild master of Aurora, a dark guild might have several uses for capturing her, such as making a display of her to scare her guild. However, she did consider her own past, her human relatives were never that much to note, except her second eldest brother Hakar had periods of struggling with gambling. On the other, her half sister Solaris had a history of getting into trouble, serious trouble. Luna accepted that if there was one thing she knew, she knew nothing about her captors.

She sat against the wall, curled up as she was starting to feel warmth in her hands again, she figured she would be better off conserving her heat for now. Still under the blanket, she felt around the collar, noting there was a key hole. She realized she had to get the collar off one way or another if she wanted to break herself out, but it was hopeless. However she did remember she was dressed for Timbermere, not the glaciers, so even if she escaped, she runs the risk of freezing to death. "Quite the mess I'm in. In order, I gotta get free of these shackles, get my gear, find the key, and escape. If I can get my fire whip, I can integrate myself for a bit, then Lightning from the Lightning Dragon eye could keep me sustained. But that information can't do me any good right now..."

Ryo sighed as he made his way to the Silent Glaciers. He was being sent to a prison that was almost completely forgotten by the magic council. He was sent here by the magic council in order to help free the Guild Master of the guild known as ‘Aurora’. He hadn’t met the Guild Master of Aurora, and truth be told he knew next to nothing about Aurora. He didn’t care though, he was a Wizard Saint, and as such he was supposed to answer the call when the magic council called him. So, here he was, he had left behind everything and covered up his guild tattoo with a card that hid it, and he instead covered his coat in the symbol of his office as a Wizard Saint.

He walked through the Silent Glaciers heading towards the prison. Thankfully, he was able to find a map that would lead him to the prison. The one thing that the Magic Council could do right, when they could be bothered to try and do anything right, was keep back up files, about back up files, about stuff they own, heard, said, or thought. They were the great archivists of the world, so long as they actually had a direct hand in it. They had a map where the prison was to be located, and he was using it now to find his way to the prison. His orders were to free the Guild Master for Aurora and get her back to safety. Of course, safety was a relative term, he assumed it meant that he was to guide her away from Silent Glacier, and somewhere else. He just figured that he would take her back to ‘civilization’ and move on with his life.

Finding his way through the paths what few there were in the Silent Glaciers however was proving fairly difficult to traverse. The paths were little better than game trails, or hiking trails if one wanted to be hugely generous. This didn’t matter to him he was heading off towards the prison making the most direct route there. He decided that it would be best to bring Gora with him on this endeavor simply because the great wolf of ice, mountain, and snow could easily find his way through the Glaciers towards wherever Ryo wanted to point him. He bounded around Ryo to create a perimeter so that his master would be safe. With Gora rushing ahead of him Ryo was able to focus on the mission at hand. He didn’t have to worry about such things as those who would close in upon him, and instead he would be able to devote most of his attention towards the job at hand.

The snow was deep, and Ryo frowned deeply as he pulled out a deck of playing cards. Taking off his coat he put it on the snow covering his coat over with playing cards using his magic to manipulate them to form the white of the Wizard Saint’s along with the cross emblems that were already in place. This would give him some better cover while he was walking through the snow. He Also coated his hats with the cards turning it white as well, he was already wearing boots that were white as well. His shirt was snow white, and so were the vest, and the bowtie. His belt was currently white leather with white deck boxes. He had only been wearing the typical red coat and black hat that were his typical outfit.

Now that he was nearing enemy territory, he knew that he would have to change. No sooner had he finished his work than he heard the howl of his wolf. He drew Ace of Spades and nodded his head lightly “I thought that this would happen sooner or later. We have reached perimeter one.” He said mostly to himself, but he knew that Gora would hear the thoughts as well. He rushed forward using the cloudy day, the cold, and his inhuman speed in order to travel as fast as he was able to allow himself. Thinking over the sound of his gun he stuffed it back into the holster and pulled out the card that was the safe holding spot of his silver blade. He flicked the card and sent it flying out into his hand. Slipping the blade into his belt he moved through the snow and found a group of four patrol officers.

He smirked licking his lips and drawing the blade as silently as he possibly could. With the blade drawn Ryo had no need to be so loud and he rushed in closing the distance between him and the straggler. Stabbing his blade into the neck of the man he silenced him before taking his head clean off of him. He licked his lips slowly and stood in the blood that was gathering at his feet. He knelt down putting his fingers in the thick blood that was turning the ground crimson. Then he slashed them through the air sending the blades of blood straight through the air and closing the distance between them. The slashes cut through the distance between them and cut the men to pieces. However, the blood wasn’t nearly enough despite the fact that it was nearly the entire human body supply of blood, so it wasn’t enough, but Ryo made do with his own mana.

In the meantime, he made his way to close the distance dragging his sword through the rest of the foes cutting them down easily. They weren’t expecting such a violent nor vicious attack, and they were hit by many of the blood blades. These people were dead men walking. Ryo smiled as he dropped down and drank from his victims gorging himself on the blood. He had been given orders that these people were enemies of the Magic Council, and Fiore. He was fully within his rights to kill any who didn’t yield to him or surrender to him. He laughed to himself as he cleaned his blade and walked towards the prison. If he didn’t give them the chance to yield then they couldn’t surrender, which meant he could end their threat before it began or was allowed to continue.

If these men were given the chance they could and would likely try these shenanigans with another guild. Perhaps his own, and he wouldn’t allow that kind of thing. Now he was closing in on the Prison and could just make it out in the distance.

The bare room seemed to bare nothing Luna could use, until she inspected the chain. She traced the chain back to the corner, and looked at the mount connecting it to the wall. The chain was new, but the mount was the same one that was built with the old prison. Luna noted that one corner was out of the wall. Taking off one of her shoes, she managed to wedge it into the gap. She didn't want to ruin her new shoes, but they were iron reinforced soles. She managed to pry out the mount using her shoe for leverage. However she was surprised for a moment as it came out surprisingly easy. She assumed it would be more stuck, but she soon learned why as when she saw the mount come off, she heard a click as something it the floor. Luna picked up a thin needle like object that she soon realized what it as as she picked it up. A lock pick covered in dust and rusted, it was around for a while. Since there were few places to hide one, Luna was not surprised that it was hidden behind the mount. "A lock pick? I don't want to be grateful for criminal behavior, but this could be life or death for me. I'm very much conflicted. Would using this be condoning criminal behavior? I mean, breaking out by any means would be criminal, but I am being held captive illegally but this was intended for criminal usage..."

Luna decided that she would have all the time in the world to debate ethics later and used the lock pic against the lock on her shackles, getting her leg free before putting her shoe back on. She was glad as she could now move freely without worrying about making too much noise. As far as magic, she tried to pick the lock on the collar, but the pick was too large for the key hole. Luna was frustrated, but she expected set backs. "Should've known it wasn't going to be that easy. Besides, I still need to collect my gear. Just the Lightning Dragon Eye, and the fire whip I believe."

She stood up and approached the door, before trying to pick the lock she tried to look outside. From what she could see of the corridor, the door across was destroyed, and the halls were kept in bad shape. She kept an ear out but only heard the drafts of the cold wind, she guessed that the state of repair was just a downside to the massive upside of the secrecy that could be held by taking refuge in a abandoned place so far out in the middle of nothing. She picked the lock and unlocked it, but the pick broke. Luna was glad it held up this long, and had expected little of it to begin with. She opened the creaking door as quietly and as she could, just enough for her to try and slide herself through the door. After slipping through, she locked both ways in the shadowy corridor, trying to determine which way would be her best bet.

There were doors on both sides, but on the left there was a major hole of at least five feet. However she started to hear sounds from the door on the right, it was clear why they picked this floor now. Luna could hear someone approach the right end door. She estimated she had a few moments to decide, whether to try and hide in the room or going left. She had too little visibility to make a judgement call, but she was not presented with many choices.

She silently ran towards the hole before she would climb down so she would be hanging off the ledge, she knew sticking around was a bad idea, but she also knew that she couldn't make too much noise immediately. She could feel her golden heart beat rapidly as the guards slowly approached, but the lead guard stopped halfway to the room she escaped from. "Hey guys, hear me out on this one. She hasn't made a sound yet, and she hasn't been up since she got here, why don't we just say it's the same as before and be done with it. Not like the boss really checks what we do anyways." The other two Guards looked to one another for a second, and nodded in agreement before they walked away. "Good help really is hard to find these days. "

Luna then tried to look down, from what she could see there was a floor, she slowly moved her hands one at a time lowering herself as much as possible before dropping down to the floor bellow. From what Luna could see in the light was that she appeared to have dropped out of solitary wing and to general, as she could see barred cells that were barren or damaged by the test of time. She started to question why it was this prison used, not just for practicality, but for how the knowledge was acquired. She wondered, who would know about this place. She stuck to the side of a wall as she gently moved one foot barely off the floor in front of the other, moving in the dark as she made her way to the end of the left side. eventually made it to the end of the hallway and realized that unlike the floor she left, this floor had corners at the ends of the hall.

She assumed that she just got off the top floor, but she had little room for speculation, without a map or reference from the outside, she could not figure that out with certainty. She knew she had to descend eventually, but she didn't want to be immediately caught. However making a decision was moot as Luna heard a snarl approach from behind. She turned around to see two red eyes approach her before a breath of fire escaping from the sides of the mouth, through the teeth gave Luna a glimpse of the beast. A massive hellhound in armor. Luna instinctively reached for her fire whip but remembered her state. She knew that if she moved, the hound would bark, if she did nothing, she'd be dead. "You wouldn't want to hurt me, would you?"

"Depends, can you offer me something better? No, didn't think so.." Luna was shocked that she could still hear the thoughts of an animal, but she supposed that even Fae Silver couldn't suppress all of her abilities. "There might be something I can offer, don't make up your mind quickly!" The hound stopped, he remembered hat the prisoner was a fairy, so he wondered what the fairy would do next. He stopped his approach. "I'm listening." Luna felt her golden heart racing as she had to figure out what she could offer a flaming hell hound. However she noticed that he was covered in blood and scars, presumably his own blood. Luna found her ticket out of the situation. "You remove my collar, I'll heal up those untreated injuries." The hound snarled for a moment before pouncing onto the fairy, Luna wanted to yelp but anxiety had gotten the better of her quickly and she couldn't make a sound from the shock.

The hound carefully sank his teeth around the silver collar before biting the silver collar, breaking the collar. If there was anything good about trained dogs, if trained incorrectly, they could be bought out with the right bribe. The hound slowly backed off of Luna. Luna grabbed the collar and pulled it off her neck as everything started to rush back to her. Having her magic suppressed for a few days created quite the rush. However she kept her word to the hound and managed to call forth enough energy to use Nature's mercy on the hound, the scars and other visible wounds seemed to fade away. The hound backed off, causing the aura to disappear. The hound turned around and walked away. "I'll let it slide this time, you're on your own next time. Luna called out to the hound quietly as she could. "Could you at least tell me what floor I'm on?"

The hound snorted as he replied telepathically. "five of six if I recall." Luna sighed as she felt depleted. While she was no longer affected by the silver collar, she still needed time to readjust. She got up and felt her senses jumbled, she couldn't even pinpoint the hound she just met, however that encounter gave her usable knowledge. She now had an idea of where she was, the near the top floor of an abandoned prison in the midst of a frozen wasteland. Things seemed better and bleaker at the same time.

Ryo and Gora walked towards the prison. At least, they made their way towards it.

Gora was in his regular white wolf form. He still stood near as tall as any man, but his snow-white fur even while he was moving made him the most impossible target to see. He had been instructed by his father, and his master Ryo to go scout ahead for him. He would be the first line of defense; his howls would signal Ryo about incoming enemies. His orders were to create a wide zigzag pattern in a 50-degree cone in front of Ryo’s direct route. He could move just as fast as Ryo could, but Ryo was keeping himself to a runner’s speed, but well within the human ranges that were to be expected. Meanwhile, Gora was running full out stretching his entire body out as he loped ahead.

The scent of the woman they were tracking was present, and it was clear enough that there were many of this prey he would have to hunt. However, he got another scent it was similar enough to Cerberus the great three-headed guardian of the underworld that Ryo used to summon. Yet, it was very strange, strange enough that it was hard for Gora to place it. Still, he would have to inform Ryo if he was able to do so. He loped through the snow and stopped instantly as his nose caught the scent of another coming his way. He stopped dead snarling softly to himself, he could find the scent, and it was moving towards Ryo.

He made his way closer to those who were hunting his master, and soon found out that there were two big behemoths. Gora snarled deeply and let loose a great howl that would likely give away his position, but that was okay, he wouldn’t be there long. He shed his normal form and then instantly turned into the great big monstrous form that he normally took on. In this form he was just as tall as the brutes, and his mass was easily the same if not greater than theirs.

Ryo on the other hand licked his lips clean of the last of the blood from his last kills. He really did enjoy it, and it was nice not to be drinking animal blood. He smiled warmly as he relished the taste of it. He couldn’t deny that he enjoyed drinking the blood of humans, but at the same time he never thought that he would be doing it. In fact, for a long time he thought that he would simply work himself to death, become a dealer extraordinaire and maybe run his own casino someday. That all changed when he met his mistress Amelia. Then he thought he’d be a simple wizard serving the masters of Sabertooth, but instead he briefly had a chance to be counted among them, and then the Magic Council called him to be a wizard Saint. Then he became an immortal vampire. He wondered what it would be like when he wasn’t growing old, but everyone in his guild, and even the Magic Council started to grow old and die.

His inner thoughts were snapped away from him as he heard the baleful howling. Ryo snapped his gaze around and wasn’t wasting his time in doing so as a pair of brutish looking men rushed over the snowbank. One was wielding a hammer, the other had a pickaxe. They were big brutish, and evil looking. Their magic was likely destructive as well. Ryo tilted his head in interest and smiled as he stabbed his sharp fingers into his shoulders. Within a moment the blood formed into two whips which were fairly strong as well as long. They lashed out at the two men slapping into them, but it didn’t stop them from closing in despite the rapid blows they were receiving. The man with the hammer raised the weapon over his head and brought it down only just missing because Ryo was already on the move. The one with the pickaxe was moving in for the kill, but he soon found himself face first in the snow with the back of his neck being ripped into by Gora, while those great claws were digging into his back ripping him to shreds as it did so. The biting and clawing were getting to the guy and he was ripping into the brute with all his might.

Ryo smirked as he let his whips continue to lash out at the brute that was attacking him. He was easily able to move through the snow and keep himself out of harm’s way. His speed wasn’t human, and he had no interest in pretending he was human at all. Instead, he made his way around, and around letting the brute waste his strength. That was until the man sent a punch flying his way which turned out to be filled with a blast of raw magical energy. This was clearly some form of blast magic or some other just raw magical talented magic. He didn’t know, and he didn’t care instead he was just going to continue to smash through the idiot he was dealing with right now. He did bring the fool down and this left Gora with his target. His whips lashed out and struck the bleeding soon to be corpse with enough force to really bring him into the land of the dead.

With this done Ryo smiled and moved to Gora petting his red soaked muzzle licking the ice crystals clean of the blood “Oh that’s my big boy. That’s my big, strong boy. You truly are my big strong boy. Look at how big you’ve grown. I remember the day when I first found you. You were so little, and so cute. I could carry you in my shirt, or on my head. You were just the cutest little thing, and I couldn’t help but dote on you.” His eyes grew distant as he spoke again “Ian…he loved you too…. We loved you so much.”

Gora licked Ryo’s face gently“I miss him too. Still, we should get going. We have a mission and the honor of your title of Wizard Saint to think of.”

He smiled wiping away a tear from his eye nodding his head “Yeah, you’re right. Alright, let’s get going.” He gently kissed Gora’s muzzle again before saying “Continue with your pattern. We will move closer, this prison isn’t that far away, and soon enough we’ll be in sight of it. Now rush my boy.” He said stepping back and letting the whips made of blood wrap around his arms, he would have to keep them out to be used at a later date. He regained his pace frowning “I hope that the guild master is at least not being molested or tortured in there. Hopefully while these idiots are idiots, they aren’t monsters.” He mutters mostly to himself as he kept up his jogging pace. Gora gave a soft bark of approval and rushed forward as fast as he was able dropping out of his battle form, and back into the while wolf form that he was more used to taking.

He enjoyed the running, but his nose was making sure that he was following the correct path. They were within sight of the prison now, and it wouldn’t be long before they busted the doors wide open for the stupid thing, and then they could go home.

Luna felt as though she was swimming in the shark tank as she was essentially still flying blind. Her magical senses were still realigning as she walked around the prison. She had her priorities set on figuring out the truth, but she knew that for now she was outgunned until she could recover. The cold metal floor was her primary threat. She knew she could squeeze out a few spells, but if she could find some dirt she could restore her magical stamina faster.

However she got to the end of the hall and started to look around as she found a stair well as she assumed it was the safest one, but not the safest route. She recalled that time was of the essence. While some of the criminals were incompetent or easily bribed, she knew she was bound to encounter a competent guard soon. She looked around for a hole, but with the light source being the holes in the walls. A thought then came to her, if her magic was no longer prohibited, that means she could integrate again. Resting her hand on the wall, information got flooded into her mind. She started to learn where she was.

"So, this is Icesworn prison. A prison specifically for those deemed too dangerous to keep close to civilization whether it be themselves or their influence. Abandoned about two decades ago following a riot that ended almost everyone's lives." Luna pulled her hand off the wall as she started to integrate the memories of the castle, she could hear every scream in her mind, every second someone was tortured, the scent of blood clouded her mind as she almost came undone until she snapped herself to reality by taking her fist and struck herself in the abdomen, she coughed out for a minute, snapping back to reality as she stood up.

"Okay Lu, focus, you don't know how often the guards check on your cell. Perhaps hourly, meaning you have about forty minutes to escape." Luna carefully searched the memories that she acquired from integration, she only got a glimpse of the small area around her. Unfortunately the breach leading to the fourth floor was in the path of the hound she had bartered with. She needed either a few minutes or dirt before she could regain the energy, she felt neither was an option. Her only path was the south western stairwell in front of her, it was fairly unguarded but that was because there was immense damage. There were a gross number of steps missing, and between the third to first floor there was nothing left. Luna opened the creaky, rusty, and broken solid iron door. She then noticed her first of few obstacles, the stairwells windows were vertical slits with little light coming through. "No choice. Gotta use magic."

Luna held out her hand as a white ball of light started to form to a large size, before it floated away and stated to descend, breaking into two balls, which each divided themselves by two, so on and so fourth until there was enough to illuminate the stairwell. The bottom three steps were intact, but the rest were destroyed except for fragments in the walls. "This is a brutal double edge sword, on the one hand I can see but on the other the Aura mines could explode on me if I am the least bit careless."

Luna grabbed onto the railing on the opposite side of the wall while extending her feet, the tips of her shoes barely balancing on the stair fragments. She bent her torso forwards a bit so she avoided the energy mines above her, even if barely for a few. Eventually she managed to plant her feet onto the solid stairs not before the railing cave in and broke off, Luna nearly fell with it but she dived to the side.

The sound of the railing echoed through the stairwell as Luna's body fell onto the floor, however she knew she had to get up soon as she could hear a masculine voice from the other side of the partially opened door. "Did you hear that? Let's check inside. Could be rubble, or the prisoner escaping." Luna noted that she had to hide, but the ledge trick she did earlier wouldn't work with the Aura mines in place, nor would she be able to retreat back up or down. She was cornered, however she scurried onto her feet before she found her way. She made her way to the corner, pressing her back against one wall, and her feet against the adjacent. Pressing against both, slowly she tried to force her way up the top corner of the section. She held her breath as she heard the steps. She knew she would have to take out whoever arrived.

The door opened as three guards walked in, confused by the orb balls. Each of them were wearing leather armor underneath iron mesh, armed with spears, but each one had a different colored lacrima in their cross guards, one red, one white, and one light blue. Luna could sense fire, wind, and ice magic coming from them. The short stubby one with the light blue spear pointed his spear at the nearest aura mine. "Woah? What are those?" The taller skinny one holding the white spear nervously and sheepishly stepped back. "Woah man, think that's a ghost? A specter of one of the people who died in the last riot? I knew coming here was a big mistake this place is haunted man!" The final man was not as tall as the last one but he was muscular and confident, he knew what he was doing and seemed to be the most experienced. He slapped the taller one upside the head. "Shuddup you morons. If that was the case, we'd be dead, the people kept here were ruthless in life so in death they'd be worse then just floating about. I swear this is why I hate working with unprofessionals too green. We should have contracted dark wizards for this." The man sighed and grimaced for a moment.

"The fairy's bound by Fae Silver, even if she did escape she's powerless. This is probably an emergency trap or something triggered by the railing. It's an old place with things falling apart. I've seen a few things like this in an abandoned prison once, but it was more so barriers instead of orbs." Luna was glad that whoever put the order out for her knew very little about Integration magic, or at the very least did not share knowledge with his men, either or worked for her at the moment.

The short one's curiosity had peaked as he was slowly moving his spear to poke the aura mine. "Only one way to find out." However the rational one in the middle tried to stop his subordinate from doing somehing stupid. He tried to grab the spear but he was too late as the spear poked the ball. "You dumbass! you screwed us all -" The ball exploded causing a chain explosion of all the balls sending them all flying back to the wall before hitting the floor of the platform. Luna could hear the sound of the cracking metal as the platform broke as two holes formed. She heard the sound of the bodies hit the floor as she realized how close she avoided a fight. She could hear the sounds of their screams before the voices of guards coming to check on the first floor. From the sound of the jumbled voices, the competent guard landed on another's spear, that ended up piercing his neck.

The thought of being glad someone died made her sick to her core, but she had no choice but to accept the good fortune as she couldn't risk him jeopardizing her position. She could hear the two others ramble on about ghosts, and the guards bellow brushed it off as their nonsense, and restated the earlier point of the competent guard. "So, they hired extra mercenaries instead of a dark guild? It would, I see. That means there are two bodies, the organization, and the hired. Up to now I only saw the hired. That explains why the first patrol gave up early. Rookies don't see the big picture."

After a few moments passed, she made her move as she couldn't risk straining herself in her current situation. Luna slowly descended down to grab the iron door, before she propelled herself off the wall with her legs, using the door to swing into the hallway. She missed her landing and ended up sliding down the hall, ended up halfway down. Luna tried to catch her breath and take time to gather her bearings but she did not have the time to do that. She made it to the fourth floor, she only had three more till ground level.

Ryo sighed as he walked through the snow, he could finally really make out the prison and see the great big double doors that was the bottom floor entrance into the prison. He knew that he and Gora would be at a serious disadvantage when they entered the prison. However, he gave a shrug yawning in his boredom with this job. The men were not worth his time, and he wondered how they even managed to capture the guild master of a guild. He was halfway convinced that they had found her while she was drinking or was in a coma of some kind. Whatever, it didn’t matter what did matter was that he was now in front of the prison’s doors and he gave a shrill whistle for Gora to join him. The big wolf rushed up towards his master licking his face “There is no one else I can find, or scent. Yet, the cloth we were given with the target’s scent is definitely close. She made her way towards this door. They aren’t very smart, but they at least brought her here while she was alive, but I can’t scent her leaving. So, she is likely still inside.”

He nodded his head lightly as he readied his sword “I expected as much.” He thought to his partner “This is going to be tricky and dangerous Gora. We need to be careful. Don’t make any sound that you don’t need to, and also, I want you to be in full battle-ready form when we go in. You come in after me. We need to be very careful here my dear one. If we aren’t then it is highly likely we shall die.” He shook his arms and the long blood whips cracked out from under his jacket and from his arms. He was ready, he just didn’t know what could come from inside of the prison, and he wouldn’t know until he went in. Putting his shoulder down he slammed into the doors busting them open and letting him into the foyer of the first floor. He stopped in stunned shock and awe to see that the woman he was supposed to rescue was there and waiting for him. He looked at her dumbfounded tilting his head to the left then the right like a dog listening to an odd sound. He couldn’t quite understand what he was seeing.

She looked at him with a sign of relief on her face moving slowly towards him which caused him to move towards her “Oh thank goodness someone has come. I was worried how I would go about opening that door. It can only be opened on the inside by someone holding a special key.”

He nodded his head and walked slowly closer it would make sense for them to do this, but from the quality of the resistance he could see that these people weren’t very clever. In fact, he would guess they were rather low on the totem pole, and clearly not associated with any dark guild. He had been worried that he would be going against a dark guild, but there was no reason to think that with the level of pathetic fights. His thought that these were amateurs seemed to hold water, and with that in mind he heaved a sigh of relief. Still, he was very surprised to see Luna free without chains, guard, or anything. He supposed she might’ve slipped the bonds that were holding her in place which would make sense because she was a guild master and he assumed that any guild master could handle themselves. He walked further into the foyer towards her “I am Ryo Knetegawa, Wizard Saint of Fate. The Magic Council has sent me to save you. Yet, it seems I was only needed to clear your path out of here seeing as you have rescued yourself.” He said glancing around trying to find any other signs of life inside of the room. He was grateful that nothing seemed to be there, but he wasn’t sure why he was feeling uneasy. His mission seemed like it was complete, and he gave a nod of his head “Well, let’s get going. We need to get out of here quickly before they summon up halfway competent reinforcements.” He said gesturing to the door.

The woman nodded her head as she closed the distance “You’re right. We need to do just that.” She said before she sent a blast magic straight at Ryo’s chest. Ryo grunted as he took the hit skidding back along the floor falling to one knee with a grunt of Gora gave a snarl of warning showing that they were surrounded.

Slowly Ryo rose to his feet panting heavily in pain “You. Are. All. Going. To. Die.” He hissed out his eyes two pitch black pools his vampiric features in full exaggerated movie dynamic. Reaching into his belt and his coat he pulled out three tarot cards, and two boxes of playing cards. He flooded his magic into all of them and soon they formed into angel wings. As soon as the wings formed 15 cards shot out towards the intruders, while Ryo’s whips lashed out heading towards the new intruders. He pulled out the cards he needed and shot away two combinations of explosive cards. They shot towards the groups and exploded damaging the groups. Ryo’s whips shot forward and slapped violently into the impostor. Ryo didn’t know that this person was an impostor, but seeing as she attacked him first, he wasn’t going to complain about attacking her, or destroying her if it mattered. He did hope that this person was an impostor so that he wouldn’t have to explain to the magic council why he was returning with a corpse rather than a Guild Master.

His whips lashed out rapidly striking the impostor again and again. She tried to lash out with another attack, but Gora surged forward sinking his fangs into the woman dragging her to the ground so that she would be an easier target for any and all of Ryo’s attacks. Ryo pulled out another pair of cards and sent a bolt of lightning out striking the woman full in the chest only just missing Gora who was busy savaging the woman’s arm tearing it from her body entirely before too long. She gave an agonized scream as she lost it, but Ryo didn’t care, instead he sent a very high-powered card flying at her body. When it struck her the sickening crunch of bones breaking, and organs being destroyed was very audible. Ryo didn’t let it end there however and moved closer to the woman drawing his blade once again “I am not going to spare you. You attacked me even though I offered to help you. You have made yourself my enemy, you attacked looking to kill. You have given me all the justification that I need to destroy you.” He said bringing his blade down and taking her head from her shoulders before kicking it away with a snarl.

His whips were lashing out and taking out the last of the ambushers, but one of them was lucky and got an attack off. He shot Ryo in the back with some kind of pistol, and Ryo’s form shattered into a swarm of bats flying behind the man in question. Ryo glared at him hissing out “You are next.” He grabbed the man with his whips and his hands sinking his fangs into the man’s throat draining him of his life blood before tearing out the man’s throat and dropping him to the ground. There were no more threats in the foyer and Ryo was glad of it. However, he felt the pain that his wounds had inflicted upon him. Holding out his left hand he said, “Blood is the Currency.” The blood around him surged towards him flowing into his hand. Using his magic, he pressed the orb into his chest in order to heal himself. He gave a sigh of pleasure as the blood flowed into his body to knit the wound. Now that he healed some of his wounds, and now that he was inside of the prison, he could work his way through it in order to find his target. He looked to Gora and nodded his head once in finality moving over to the door and pulling out a trio of cards. Using these cards and his magic he changed the cards into steel door blockers in order to keep them from being closed behind him. The cards were far heavier than the door and were unlikely to be moved. He loved that his magic allowed him to completely manipulate cards including what they were made of, what size, shape, color, and even weight of them. With the door secured Ryo looked to Gora “We need to search now. Let’s go and find our real target. I really hope that wasn’t the real her.” He said heading deeper into the halls of the prison looking for the charge he was sent to.

Leaning against the wall by a corner, Luna picked up a loose piece of a broken bar and tossed it down the hall ahead of her to ensure it was safe to pass through, she had heard no reaction at first so she decided to tread carefully down the hall. She couldn't see anything, but she was relying on the mental layout she had acquired. She predicted there had to be another hole she could exploit, given the evidence so far. She calmed her breathing but in an instant she was shocked as she could hear growling from down the hall. She knew there was a guard dog coming, and the growl let her know that he was aware, he was aware she was there.

Her instincts told her she couldn't last long in a head to head fight until she could restore more of her energy and without her weapons she knew damn well she was vulnerable. She ran down the hall, trying to put as possible, however running in the dark hall was her biggest mistake. She couldn't see, and her mind was too clouded to think straight, it was one wrong move that nearly ended things for the fairy as she fell through a hole and fell down onto the floor bellow, the third floor. After crashing on the ground, she struggled to move for a minute, barely able to breathe. She guessed she bruised a few ribs at least, however she had to keep moving. She crawled to the side and leaned up against the wall, using it to assist her in standing up again.

She slowly made her way down the hall but the she felt something suddenly grab her mouth from behind keeping it closed. She heard a familiar voice speak quietly into her ear as the woman leaned in to whisper. "Lunaris Mira, it's me, Captain Smith. Stay silent. I'm in a deep cover mission, however things have taken dark turns. I thought we were supposed to be committing an attack, but it's way worse. Fold your arms behind your back and stay calm." Luna was glad that there was a familiar face in the midst of the chaos, she remembered Captain Smith from when she stopped Luna from killing the Fairy hunter after he was already rendered incapacitated. In her fear, her instincts told her that she could trust the Rune Knight. She folded her arms behind her back as the dark haired green eyed woman grabbed Luna by the neck in one hand and her arms in the other.

She started to shove Luna as she led Luna through the halls, Luna then noticed that there were fewer cells then the other floors, and eventually Luna found the lacrima torches set up by the occupying party, noting that she was getting closer to the occupied point. Passing around the corner the two found a guard, who gave the two a weird stare, but Smith spoken up first. "The boss wanted her to be taken to him, personally." She winked to the man, a nonverbal cue, he let the two pass as Smith led Luna to a room that used to serve as the warden's office. It seemed all that was left was the desk, broken furniture with a few someone stable chairs, the desk, and a bulletin board. There was a pot with old dirt inside, Luna could sense the long dead remains of a cold resistant plant. On the desk was her Fire whip, Lightning Dragon Eye, and the diary. When Luna saw the bulletin board she noted it was divided into three sections, on the far left was the Aurora guild mark, a photo of her that was crossed out with the date she was abducted. On the far right was Sabertooth guild crest, with a lot of pictures with question marks until it let to a note "Find anyone that can be easily forged.". In the middle was a picture of Era, with a date and time for three days ahead from present, with a thread connected back to her own picture.

When Smith let Luna go so she could close the door, Luna instantly walked to the book and laid her hand on it. She used Integrated mind to scan it and she was deeply disturbed by it's contents as she found the summary. "In order to establish the once great guild again. We must do something beyond powerful, we must wipe out the whole board. From what we understand, the Aurora guild master is now some weak nobody, should be easy to kidnap and contain, fairies are powerless against Fae Silver. However not all intel panned out, the bribes we paid for were crap. We were given bull stories about Sabertooth wizards that don't exist, we gotta pin her death on someone. Start a feud, and see it escalate. Aurora can't survive the fight they justly started. This plan can't fail."

Luna spat on the book as now she was angry, not at the attempt on her life, but the fact that this was all apart of a half-cocked plan to start a war that wouldn't happen. She clenched a fist. "This plan, is riddled with holes, it wouldn't work, the magic council wouldn't let it, and even then, my own death would never merit this out of my guild. They know nothing of either guild-" Luna could sense something rush towards her. Her instincts reached for the Lightning Dragon Eye. She felt the static enter her as her reflexes were heightened as she jumped out of the way.

She slid the ring onto her finger fully only to see Captain Smith, with a glowing gauntlet. It did not take long for Luna to piece it together, who would know her, have access to know her weaknesses, and Captain or rather just Smith would have access as a Rune Knight. She looked annoyed as she put her hand in the pot as she spoke, hoping to distract Smith while she tried to use what little strength she had left. "You... It was you wasn't it! Who kidnapped me in Timbermere. You got the jump on me Smith was only laughing, Luna was counting the seconds as the Cabmage finished growing. However the door slammed opened and reinforcements stormed in, Luna knew what was going on now. "Ah crap, this was set up for an Ambush! Knowing their plans is pointless if I am going to die."

She grabbed the Cabmage and shoved it into her mouth, Smith was concerned as she instantly barked an order. "Don't let her swallow that!" However she forced it down, barely chewing and nearly choked as two men rushed her with their spears through the shoulders as they held her against the wall. Luna managed to resettle her breathing as she could feel the Cabmage starting to work as Smith rushed between the two, using the speed boost of her gauntlet to repeatedly punch Luna in the abdomen. Luna however was not going down easy as she aimed her left hand towards her assailant as a ball of lighting formed in one hand, and a ball of energy in the other. She planned it out carefully as the ball of lighting turned into a lightning strike that hit Smith in her iron gauntlet. Luna could hear her screams as she was stalled for a moment, and Luna then dropped the ball of white energy."Aura wave:Splash zone."

As the ball hit the ground, a wave of white energy came out and hit all three in the way immediately, the spears coming out as Luna grabbed each of the wounds as they were covered in a soft pink glow as she healed them. She looked around the room and noticed she had to deal with five guards. She dashed and jumped over the desk, grabbing her fire whip as she activated it right into claw mode, and whipped it towards the back of the room, grabbing the cross guard of the spear of one guard and forced it through another guard's chest with one strong movement. She then kicked up her foot as she released a wave of white energy towards the disarmed guard, knocking him back against a wall and onto the floor. She retracted the and grabbed the spear as she returned her focus to the three guards, and impaled the spear into one of their throats.

Smith gotten back up, she took off and threw away the electrified gauntlet as she attempted to kick Luna, who caught the foot with both hands and pulled and tossed aside the foot causing Smith to fall onto the floor, and in a quick rush she charged white energy along her right arm as she then made a pitching motion forcing a large bolt of white energy at the neck of the traitorous Rune Knight. Luna heard a snap as the body hit the floor, and how the head was loosely attached to the body, Luna could sense the life force fading clear as day.

She saw the last guard, trying to hide in the corner behind the broken wooden shelves. Luna picked up a staff with a red lacrima, a fire one as she shoved it through the wood into the man's ribs, before she forced her magic through the spear forcing the head to blaze on fire before she walked way, hearing the screams of the man as he slowly burnt to death.

Luna walked away, not liking what she was doing one bit, but she knew that this time, she could not leave any survivors, not when there was a plot to hurt those she cared about. If the guild was to be in danger, anyone that stood in Luna's way was bound to die. With her energy restored, she started to run through the halls, strapping the rod of the Fire whip back to her side, ready to end this all. Once she reached the staircase, she sighed as she found this was yet again missing stairs, but this time she had no time for such things. Folding in her thumb on her right hand and stretching out her fingers, she created an energy blade before jumping off the ledge and stabbing the blade into the wall slowing her down as she reached the ground floor.

She climbed down from the pile of debris as she made her way to the door, now searching the halls for an exit or answers before someone knew she was missing.

WC 1757TWC 5809

Last edited by Luceam on Tue 12 Feb 2019 - 4:39; edited 1 time in total

The ground floor of the prison was nothing but a charnel house now. Ryo was in a true fury and he was not about to spare anyone. However, he stopped and looked to Gora with a nod of his head “I want you to guard the entrance. You let no one leave here alive, I don’t want a single one of these scum bags to leave this prison alive. They are enemies of the Magic Council, and of the Wizard Saints they don’t deserve mercy.”

The great white dire wolf nodded his head in understanding and did as he was told. Making his way back to the front entrance he resumed his battle shape just in time to catch a little sneak trying to flee. Gora fell upon the man from behind lunging at him and pinning him to the ground sinking his fangs into the man’s neck his claws ripping through the man’s back and body. His screams were quickly silenced by his death and Gora left the man’s body alone. He took up a position where his back was to the hallway that Ryo had walked down and watched the door with a hungry look in his eyes.

Ryo on the other hand continued to walk down the hallway and pulled out 9 cards. The card was a tarot cards that had Ryo’s image on it. He let the cards fall to the ground and from it emerged an exact replica of Ryo. This included the damage that he had taken, the spells he was under, and his outfit. However, it was a little too perfect in how it looked and was constructed. Ryo looked at it and spoke softly “Go through the rooms and hallways that I do not. As you do kill everyone who is not Aurora, but I want you to wait until you are attacked first. Do you understand?”

The clone makes no verbal response but nods its head. Slowly it moves into one room while Ryo moves into the room next to it. Sadly, he and his clone find nothing, but they decided that there was no point in not exploring every room. They made their way from room to room, hallway to hallway going through the whole western wing of the prison. It was clear that this prison was designed to not only hold regular scumbags, it could easily hold and imprison monsters, demons, and the like. He was very sure that there were those kind of creatures in the past, but they weren’t here any longer. The magic council was full of dirty secrets, sickening lies, and disgusting practices. Yet, he would serve as their weapon so long as they were helpful to his guild, and so far, they had been.

As he moved into another cell, he saw that these cells were being used to house the vile kidnappers who were causing all of the problems. They were using the cells as bedroom, and bunk houses. This wasn’t very unusual, but he was a bit surprised that there were signs of so many guards. Clearly the perimeter was far larger than he thought, and he had broken through a weakness in the point. However, he had slain a lot of people, so it was likely he had taken away a large chunk of the standing forces. He was distracted from his thoughts by the sound of footsteps running towards him. He looked to see a group of six people. Two more of those big brutes, and a group of the smaller weaker foe. He rolled his eyes in irritation as he saw them. These were nothing more than wheat before the scythe and he would deal with them as such.

Ryo looked to his clone and smirked as he summoned up the cards he needed. His clone also summoned up a series of cards. With the two weaving spells they formed three beings. One was of fire element and it was in the shape of a bear. The two that Ryo made were simple card constructs in the shapes of a Wolf, and a Mastiff. They sent these beings ahead of them. They were good cannon fodder and while they attacked the group Ryo and his clone threw cards at them. Ryo threw them from his wings, while his clone threw them from his hands like Ryo would normally do.

The men pulled up their weapons most of which were magical guns and tried to shoot at the Bear, and the Wolf. They were a bit surprised to see these creatures and thus their aim was off, but they didn’t really have a chance to do much more because they were under attack. The bear leapt onto one of the men burning him with his fire paws, and bit into him with his great big fangs ripping into him with abandon. The wolf lunged towards one of the brutes who slapped it away with a great big fist. The force of the blow nearly shattered the wolf which only caused Ryo to confirm his suspicion that these brutes were a force to be reckoned with. Frowning he pulled out his cards and cast another spell “Combo Card: Lightning Beam!” using his attack combo he shot a beam of lightning against the brute that slapped his wolf. The brute stood little chance and was blasted clean off of his feet. He was slammed into one of his comrades he stepped in front of crushing the much smaller man behind him as the pair struck a set of bars ringing off of them before sinking to the floor.

The Mastiff on the other hand found much more success and sank its powerful jaws into the brute’s leg. It gave a growl of its own and attempted to slam its powerful fists down onto the hound’s back. However, it let go and latched onto its arm. The brute bellowed its rage swinging its arm wildly around looking to break the hound against the wall. Ryo’s clone threw a card at the brute while Ryo matched it with a flaming elemental card of his own. The cards struck the brute, but not in time to save the mastiff who was brutally smashed into a wall, then into one of the brutes’ companions shattering on the latter as it was just too much for the simple construct. It burst into the cards that had created it, but the man had already been knocked down. The brute charged at Ryo with a roar of fury. This didn’t cause Ryo to be concerned at all instead he simply let the two blood whips that he had left over lash out and strike the brute with two lashes across his chest forcing the Brute to hold himself back and drop to his knees. Pulling out his pistol Ryo moved closer to the brute standing less than 10 feet away from him “I forgive you.” He pulled the trigger several times sinking five cards into the brute’s head dropping him to the ground stone dead.

His clone on the other hand didn’t fare so well against the foes that were still standing. The men had finally gotten their nerve and were using their magical rifles to blast into Ryo’s clone. They had been distracted by the fact there were two of them, and yet they had the wherewithal to realize that should the caster die the constructs would likely follow their master. His clone had taken several shots and was barely holding itself together. The fire bear however lunged upon one of the ones who had shot its creator roaring as it slashed, crushed, and bit down onto the man repeatedly crushing him with his weight which is surprising being that it is a bear made of flames. The man burned up as Ryo’s clone was struck with another blast shattering it into the cards that had made it up. The fire bear was soon behind disappearing as if a great gust of wind had come along and blown him out like a candle. Yet, there was only the single survivor left. Ryo looked over at him and spoke in a low deadly voice “I suggest you put your weapon down. I have slaughtered a lot of people tonight, and I am growing weary of cutting through you worthless mongrels like the dogs you are. Now, tell me where your leader is, and I shall let him be the only casualty that is left. Speak quickly, or your life shall end with great agony.”

The man looked up at Ryo with great fear in his eyes and he slowly backed away dropping his weapon “I-I was just hired by some guy. I never heard his name, but he has some really cool armor full of magic. He gave the magic weapons to everyone and was clearly powerful as well as rich. I am on-only getting a paycheck!”

Ryo waved his wing savagely to silence the man before he kept speaking “Where is he?”

The man trembled “He has an office in the other wing! He-he was there I thought! I don’t know where he would be if he isn’t there! I’m sorry!”

With a tsk of disgust Ryo waved his hand to silence him “Shut your worthless mouth! Get out of my sight!” the man rushed as fast as he could towards the exit. Ryo slowly let his vampiric smile spread as he hadn’t told the man about Gora guarding the entrance, and he wasn’t going to tell his great wolf to stand down. The orders still stood, anyone who made themselves an enemy of Ryo and attacked him didn’t deserve mercy. They were enemies of all of Fiore, and Ryo had been let off the leash by the magic council so he could conduct himself however he wanted to in this fight.

Sure, enough as the man neared the entrance he was pounced upon by the giant white dire wolf. Gora ripped the man to pieces going for his throat. The man didn’t have a chance to scream as his throat was ripped out and Gora covered himself in blood. Meanwhile, Ryo looked around and sighed shaking his head he would deal with the leader now then. He made his way through the prison towards the foyer so that he could make his way towards the other wing of the prison. There would be an office there, hopefully, a place where this leader would be, but if there was anything like the rest of this prison it was likely that he would have to kill more people. He would manage, and the card wolf was at his side as it limped alongside him.

'Must stop this plot or escape' was going through Luna's mind, if she could get back to her guild and inform the magic council, she would be able to stop this plot from ever reaching close to success. However the same results could be achieved if she took out the boss right here, right now. It had taken nearly everything she had to get this far, she wondered if she could handle any more fights given that she was operating on Cabmage energy.

She was walking down the hall until she stopped suddenly, falling against the wall as she fight a throbbing pain in her back. She knew that using Cabmage wasn't a one sided deal, there were drawbacks, mostly to fairies in human like forms. She felt her wings extend from beside her shoulder blades and through the sides of her red qipao. Her transparent wings lowered behind her back already started to sprinkle the glowing powder of Mediocris Lacrimis. "As if I wasn't under prepared enough for the weather, now I'm dispensing glowing dust... Stealth is out the window now. At least flight is an option while inside, the winds might be a problem later."

She sprinted down the hall and leaped slightly and propelled herself magically through her wings as they raised, sprinting through the halls until she leaped slightly off the floor, flying slightly above the ground. While it would be more efficient to fly at a smaller size, she wasn't trained enough fighting in her pure fairy form.

However she heard gunshots and the sound of a male voice, she sensed two remaining life forces and waited for the one moving away seemed to pass and she figured that she could pass the other. She couldn't tell who was friend or foe, and for all she knew there could be two foes out there and she'd be the common enemy. She knew she could have a shot if she used speed to escape what she assumed was a man or another guard dog, she held her breath before she grabbed the door and swung open. She sprinted out towards through the halls and ended up looking down towards the front door but she stopped herself a short distance away from the sight of the Dire wolf covered in blood, with the corpse of one of the hired mercenaries.

She looked around quickly and the stench of blood in the air. She called hearing a voice, quite possibly the wolf's, a guard's, or a third party, possibly an alley of the wolf. Whether they were friend or foe was a worse problem to solve. She looked the wolf in the eyes as she kept her distance, prepared to try and keep a calm tone. She raised her arms from the elbows up keeping her arms in the line of sight, figuring better to gamble on the wolf not being keen on striking down Nature Fairies. Luna was always good with animals, but something told her this time she was pushing her luck. "Don't kill me, I am a Nature Fairy, we can talk this out. My name is Luna Mira, Guild master of Aurora. I am currently trying to bust my way out of this abandoned prison."

Luna noted that the corpses tended to show the canine was no friend to these guys. She looked around and hoped that she could get the wolf to see her reasoning, and if that failed she can barter again. "Please, I have to go inform the magic council of this place, it's festering a conspiracy against the Aurora and Sabertooth guilds that albeit doomed to fail by a series of holes upon holes. Regardless, I don't have the firepower to take this place down myself. I have been lucky and avoided the boss so far, but I suspect he may be aware I am free."

The thoughts caught up to Luna as soon as they started to settle in. Where would a boss in his situation be if not for his set up office, checking out the merchandise, in this case her. Or quite possibly outside taking a smoke, but he could very well be on his way back to that room, only to see a pile of corpses or near dead mercenaries, and the glittering blood of a fairy spilled and remnants of Cabmage... she was truly screwed. She felt trapped and didn't know what to do, the aura she was sensing from the Dire Wolf suggested that it could be trusted, but actions in this case spoke louder then words.